Best Video In Hamden Asks Community For Assistance To Avoid Closure

One of the staples in Hamden is by far Best Video, located in the Spring Glen section of Whitney Avenue. In addition to being the only video rental place in the Hamden/New Haven area (as many rental places closed their doors years ago), Best Video is also a community gathering place.

However, it is sadly on the verge of closing.

According to an article on WNPR entitled Hamden’s Best Video Asks Public’s Help, it owes over $12,000 to vendors. The article states in the coming weeks, they are taking to social media to ask for help. To avoid closing its doors, the video store will need to add at least 200 to 500 members to their membership program. Additionally, they will also need to raise $50,000 in contributions.

To do this, they are turning to the New Haven community to ask for help.

The article went onto say Best Video was able to stay afloat in the streaming era by opening up a cafe, hosting film festivals, and becoming a venue for local music acts. In addition to that, Best Video maintain its reputation of holding hard to find movies.

Best Video is the latest (and possibly the last) victim to be hit as the market is geared more and more towards streaming services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and Netflix, leaving video stores in the past. In fact, it’s scary to think about just 10 years ago, we would go to the video store to get a movie. Now, we just log into Netflix and it’s there instantly.

However, upon hearing the news, I still felt a wave of sadness rush through me. For all of my life, Best Video has remained to be a community gathering place, and a beloved place in the Hamden community. It’s sad to watch it as it becomes another victim of the digital revolution. However, we are now living in a digital world, and in that world, it changed how we do pretty much everything.